1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a cooking apparatus, and, more particularly, to a cooking apparatus and a method for controlling the same.
2. Discussion of the Related Art
In general, there are a variety of types of cooking appliances, such as ovens, microwave ovens, and other suitable types of ovens. Microwave ovens are provided with only a magnetron, or both with a magnetron and a heater for cooking food. An oven is a cooking appliance designed for cooking food enclosed therein with dry heat. A heat source for supplying the heat to the food may be an electric heater or a gas heater.
In general, ovens are provided with a cavity, a space for holding the food, a door for opening/closing the cavity, and a heater for cooking the food.
The cavity is a cooking space in a body of the oven, and the door is hinged on a front of the oven which forms the cavity, and may be opened/closed in left/right or up/down directions.
The heater is on one side of an inside the cavity for supplying thermal energy for cooking the food. The thermal energy from the heater is transmitted to the food by convection or radiation.
However, conventional cooking appliances have the following problems.
First, because the related art cooking appliances transmit thermal energy from the heater to a surface of the food by convection or radiation, heating of the food to an inside thereof takes a long time period.
Second, because the heat from the heater of the cooking appliance heats the entire inside of the cavity, the thermal energy that cooks the food is only a portion of the thermal energy that the heater generates.
Moreover, the thermal energy leaks to an outside of the cooking appliance through gaps between the body of the cooking appliance and the door, which reduces energy efficiency of the related art cooking appliances.
Third, the transmission of thermal energy from the heater of the related art cooking appliances to the surface of the food causes a problem of non-uniform heating of the food, which forms portions of the food that are partially burnt or under-cooked.
Fourth, the heater of the related art cooking appliances fixedly secured to the inside thereof causes a problem of one-sided transmission of thermal energy from the heater to the inside of the cavity. Because the heater is fixedly secured to the inside of the cooking appliance, the user can not vary a position of the heater. Moreover, a mounting structure of the heater is complicated, and use of the heater is not convenient.
Fifth, even though cooking methods vary with food conditions (for example, moisture contents) even in the same type of food, and cooking levels the users desire vary with tastes of the users, the related art cooking appliances fail to provide food cooked as a user desires, since as the related art cooking appliances supply the thermal energy to the food from the heater without variation.
These problems cause customer complaints and deteriorate product reliability.